Odds and Ends

Rusty surprised me today. He hasn't played NASCAR dog in over two years but this morning he took a notion to play. I was emptying the trash in the tent and Rusty just decided that he wanted to play. He started running around in circles which, of course, Gizmo can't resist giving chase so the two of them ran around for at least five minutes all around the tables. That cheered my heart to see Rusty feeling frisky again. I think he figured out that he could use the tables to his advantage to stay ahead of Gizmo so he couldn't easily catch him. I haven't seen them play NASCAR dogs since Rusty contracted Lyme disease. The used to do it all the time so it was nice to see them play just like old times.

My leg has a serious knot on it. I think I tore part of the muscle when I fell off the truck. There is a dent in my thigh about four inches wide and then a very hard ridge next to it. That particular spot is pretty sore but the huge bruise is almost gone. Only the outside edges are visible so apparently most of the blood has been absorbed. But whenever I kneel down, the dent in my leg gets really tight. I guess it's scar tissue. I'm considering having Dr. Parise look at it but I can't imagine what could be done about it at this point in time.

I was diesel girl today. I spent over $200 in fuel since diesel is $3 a gallon here. The truck took $107 and the rest went into the containers to fill up the generator and all the light towers.

There are bugs here they call Palmetto bugs -- which is a bullshit name because all they are are flying roaches. I killed the first one in my house today. I knew sooner or later they'd make it inside as they are all over the place down here. They are fast little suckers too. I hate 'em. I can deal with the damn lovebugs but these freakin' roaches piss me off just because they're so obnoxious. Normal roaches hide during the day and you usually only see them scurrying for cover at night. These Palmetto bugs are brazen little buggers and fly all over the place during the day. There were dozens of them at the campground in Williston and I thought they'd get in the house while I was there but tonight was the first time I've seen one inside. It took me a while but I finally killed his ass.

These mosquitoes are starting to get on my nerves too. I need to get something to get rid of the itching. I'm guessing that's what Rusty and Gizmo are scratching at. Mosquito bites. We all suffer together.

I'm listening to Marilyn Manson on Sirius radio. I've decided that I like his music but I can't bring myself to buy any of his stuff just because he's so strange looking. Same reason I never bought any of KISS's stuff back when they were big in the 70's.

Next week I go back to Delaware to settle on the house. I'm dreading it because for me Delaware just represents a lot of heartache. Three divorces, a lost job that I poured my heart and soul into, and a lost house that I really loved. Not to mention all my stuff that I also really loved. I like my new life ok but I still get depressed when I think of how hard I worked for what I had for all those years. And it makes me mad. I'm still trying to deal with the anger.

Mascotte

To me, Mascotte is more like an extension of Clermont. Actually, it's more like an extension to an extension. You have Clermont, then Groveland, then Mascotte. I don't know which is smaller, Mascotte or Williston. However, the tent sale seems to be going really well so I guess it doesn't matter.

I had my first (kind of) major screw up on Sunday when I let the truck driver go without getting the generator. That kind of upset Doug (and I don't blame him) because now he had to come to Williston to get it. It was pulled in next to my motorhome and the driver couldn't get to it with the truck because there were three SUV's in the way. Doug said I should have made him wait for the car haulers to get back so they could move them. So Doug wasn't too happy with me at the time but he got over it.

Other from that, things are going pretty good. The tent people didn't get to Mascotte until after 1 in the afternoon on Monday. So that put me way behind the power curve on getting set up. I had a helper and the dude was great. His name is Mark. He's going to be back on Monday night to help me tear it all down. The DSL didn't get hooked up until yesterday so my blog is kind of late this week.

WHAT is the deal with these lovebugs???? They are a huge nuisance for motorists here in Florida because they spatter all over your hood and windshield. From what I've learned, they are just harmless flies and are actually beneficial to the ecology here. But if you don't get them off your car within a few days, they'll ruin the paint. Here is a link that tells all about them:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_MG068
There are thousands of them in this field where our tent sale is because of all the straw and thatch on the ground. If you walk fast you better walk with your mouth closed or else they'll end up in your teeth. Yuck.

I thought Delaware was windy. The wind has not stopped blowing here in Mascotte since Monday. Well, actually it dies down at night but by around 8 in the morning or so, it starts back up again and blows all day till dusk. No awning this week, that's for sure, because gusts are up to around 25 mph.

So far, so good

I seem to be settling into a routine. After the Monday mayhem, the rest of the week is cake. I've decided that to be a car salesman, you have to smoke. There are about a half dozen sales people here along with three managers at the tent sale and if I'm not mistaken, every single one of them smoke. My mornings start with cleanup detail. I empty the trash cans, clean the porta potties, and then start sweeping up all the cigarette butts. I get about five dustpans full every morning. The butts are all over the lot. Amazing. Once that is done, I start up the music (XM radio :)) and open the gates at 9:00. I plug in the inflatable and then retire to solitude in the motor home. If they need anything, they come fetch me. The rest of the day is pretty much goof off time until 8 or so when I go fire up the light towers. The sales people try to shut it down by nine but if they have customers, they'll finish up with them first. When they leave, I turn off the lights and close the gates. I'll stay up till about one or two and then get some shuteye until the next morning.

And that's about it.

Now Sunday, I'll tear it all down and go to the next spot, which in this case, will be Mascotte, a burg just west of Orlando.

That will be convenient as it's relatively close to LazyDays which is where I'm taking the motorhome to be serviced while I'm up in Delaware settling on the house. My house has some queer electrons running around in it causing my radio to shut off and the fridge to click.

One interesting thing that happened this week was I fell off the lift on the truck. How embarrassing. I have a HUGE bruise on the inside of my thigh where it hit the side of the lift as I was going down. I fell about four feet and landed on my side. Other from the massive bruise, I didn't hurt anything else. I was very fortunate. Now I double check to make sure of where I am when I'm standing on the lift.

Tomorrow night is tear down night and the DSL at the new site isn't going to be installed until Tuesday or Wednesday. By then I'll be able to blog about how the relocation deal goes down.

See you next week.

First Day of the New J-O-B

OK I knew I was out of shape, but DAMN. I am completely wiped out. Which is disgusting because the work isn't all that hard. Five years ago, it would have been a snap. But that's ok because I have the next few days to recover. I just hope I don't injure my back doing something stupid. I'll have to be careful.

But the work is fun and different. I'm setting up for used car tent sales. I've decided that I hate the light towers. It's very frustrating having to pound on them with a hammer and mallet just to adjust the lights and get the pins out to raise the towers. They will be my nemesis. My favorite part is everything else. Except for running power. The extension cords are heavy too.

I have GOT to tell you about the bathroom in the restaurant across the highway from the sale. The restaurant belongs to a hotel and it's ok as far as restaurants go when you walk in. But when I walked into the bathroom I felt like I'd walked into something from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Well, maybe not quite that bad. First, it was dirty. There was dried poop in the toilet bowl. The walls had more grime on them than the engine in my truck. They were rotting out near the floor. And the FAN!! OMG It sounded like it was about to blow up. It would get almost up to speed and there must have been worn bearings because you could hear the fan blades hit the edges of the housing. Like an unbalanced clothes washer. BAM BAM-BAM BAM. Then the thing would almost stop and start the cycle all over again since it was still getting juice. If the place burns down, I'll know why. Then, there was no hot water in the sink. Not uncommon in some bathrooms but added to the rest of the mess, it just fit right in.

A nap is definitely sounding like a good idea right about now.

Posted by Carol Andrejak at 7:09 PM 0 comments

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Smoky Florida

A lot has happened since my last post. I ended up giving the rest of my stuff away that was left over from the yard sale. That was pretty hard watching people just load it up and drive off. I sold the rest of my furniture to a good friend of mine from DelState so that at least cheered my heart knowing that some of my best stuff went to someone I knew.

I sat around the house for a few more days waiting until I could leave. David and I had a rally to go to down at the fairgrounds so I was just hanging around until then. Tammie is still looking for a place. I know she's getting worried. I wish she would just go back to Mississippi and help mom.

I bought my tow bar and a tire pressure monitoring kit while I was at the rally. But I wasn't able to get the kit installed as the RV needs to go up onto a lift to get it done. The Delaware Travelers were also at the rally so I got caught up with Gary and Jeanette, Aggie and Roger, and Brian and Marie. It was good to see all of them again.

Sunday after the rally, David and I drove his truck to the airport to leave it. Then it was back to Harrington to dump the tanks and head on down the road. We spent the night at a Flying J and that wasn't too bad. We made it to Williston around 7 pm. It was really smoky around Lake City from the fires in Georgia. The campground where I'm staying is just lovely. We took some time to drive down to Cedar Key to have lunch and that was really nice. I took David to the airport in Orlando this morning so he could fly back home.

Then it was up to Gainesville to get my glasses fixed as the lens fell out. I also need to see if I can find an RV service shop who can put on my tire pressure kit on short notice. I'm not holding my breath.

So that's about it for now. I start work on Monday and I plan on moving the motor home over to the new location early that morning so I can find a good place to park. The lot where they are having the sale is triangular shaped and not very big. I'm interested to see how this is going to pan out once they get everything in place.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Yard Sale Queen

I'm starting to get good at this yard sale stuff. It's easy when you have to get rid of everything.

Potential buyer -> "Ten dollars! For this???" (as they point to a $175 hardly used work bench)
Me (thinking 'You cheap bastard') -> "OK, eight bucks."
"Five."
"Seven."
"Six."
"Done."

Jeez. But, hey, I'm in sell mode. I've managed to sell all my furniture except for the coffee tables. Everyone loves them but I get the feeling they are just too big for most folks. But I still have a few more days yet and I'm hoping the ad in the News Journal will work. I sold the bedroom suite to Jason, the guy who bought my house -- for a song. But at least I don't have to mess with tearing it apart and it's a mother bear to take it apart. So much easier to just leave it there.

The State News pissed me off because they didn't run my yard sale ad in the weekend papers. Said they never received it. Well it never bounced so it must have gone into classified LaLa Land. I should have followed up on it Friday but I got sidetracked and it was almost closing time when I finally got a chance to call.

Me -> "Hi, I thought I'd check since you never called to get my credit card number for my ad."
DSN (after putting me on hold to look for my email) -> "We're sorry Ms. Andrejak, but we never received the information for you ad...."
Me -> "Well can you get it in Sunday's paper??"
DSN -> "No ma'am. The earliest we can get it in for you is Tuesday."
Me -> (silently) $#%@*& "So what you're telling me is I'm screwed for my yard sale this weekend."
DSU -> "I'm terribly sorry ma'am."

Needless to say, the customers were pretty thin. But I put a couple strategic signs at the intersection up the road and it helped but business was way better last weekend.

When Jason and his parents came to the house today they stayed for a little over an hour. His dad wanted to get cozy with the spiders and snakes and have a look under the house. When he was done, I asked him if everything looked ok and he said he didn't see any issues. He better not. The house is only seven years old...

Anyway, the living room, dining room and den are empty and it's starting to get to me. I really loved my house and seeing it like this reminds me of when I bought it. Except the carpet is more worn. I really don't need to be in Florida until the 14th but I'm leaving right after the Parkview Rally this weekend because I don't want to come back. It's really painful for me. I had so many plans for this house and I was so close to getting it the way I wanted for when I retired. All I had left were the glass skylights that opened and the decks on the front and back. After that, I would be flower garden girl. So having to sell the house and all my stuff has been pretty difficult for me. I'm sorry but I'll admit to being materialistic. It probably comes from not having much of anything growing up. My folks worked hard and they did the best they could but I'll never forget my mom sewing me dresses out of material from flower sacks when I was in the fifth and sixth grade. So, yeah, I prized my possessions and I'm not ashamed of it. I had my leather couch and chair, my plasma TV, my stone coffee table, my Dell computer and I was all set. So it took me a few weeks to convince myself that I needed to sell it all to other people.

So now it's almost all gone. The house is almost empty. I know they say you can't take it with you but damn. This pretty much sucks.

And that's why I can't wait to leave Delaware. This is a great state but now there are too many bad memories. Three divorces, two major career changes, and one lost house.

I'm going to try the stupid State News one more time tomorrow morning to see if they can get it right for Tuesday:

Yard Sale.
Everything a dollar or less.
Everything free on Wednesday morning if you can beat the trashman.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Stuck in Delaware

I've finally relented and decided to start a blog. Everyone has been telling me to get busy on it so now that I'm unemployed (temporarily), I have a little bit of time to work on it.

Since this is my first post to my blog, I need to enlighten you to my status and how I came to be where I am now. I've had several lives. First was my Air Force life where I used to be a flight engineer on the C-5's. That ended in 1992. Then there was my restaurant owner life that ended in 1995. Then there was my Delaware State life that ended last month. I had three mini-lives at DSU. First there was sports information, then IT, and then bowling. It was the bowling that precipitated my demise. THAT will be another blog post saved for another day. I've been married three times and even though I've had a boyfriend for over a year, I have no plans on doing it again. So now you have a bit of background and I'm going to start from here.

Oh, you probably should know some of the characters who will show up regularly in my posts.
David - Ex-Boyfriend
Rick - Ex-husband #1 who lives in Mississippi
Shane - Son who lives in Kansas with his wife Catherine and son Lucas
Bob - Ex-husband #2 who lives in Dover
Ken - Ex-husband #3 who lives in Baltimore
Tammie - Sister who used to live with me till I lost my house
Dennis - best boss I ever had

For the last month, I've been living in my driveway as I try to sell my house. After a month on the market, I got an offer last week and now the realtor sign in my front yard has SOLD on it. So that's a good thing since the money is running out. It's been quite an adventure since I lost my job so I'll have lots to blog about. People have told me I could write a book about my life. I think I'll just blog about it instead.

Here's an observation. Isn't it interesting that someone with no job can buy an brand new 07 Winnebago Outlook motorhome and a new 08 Mercury Mariner Hybrid? Isn't that cool? I think I just managed to squeak the credit check in before they found out I was out of work. So here's the funny thing -- I can buy over $100K worth of vehicles but I can't get a cell phone without a $500 deposit. That makes no sense. I've had a prepay account with Verizon for years now but finally shut it down to switch to Consumer Cellular last week. So now I have a real cell phone bill. How about that. If any of you want to make the switch, be sure to use my name so I can get the $10 off my next bill. (You get $10 off too.)

I've been selling everything I own for the past few weeks. I'm getting down to my last yard sale this weekend and after that it's all going to Goodwill or the dump. It took me a couple weeks to get into the mindset of getting rid of all my possessions that I'd worked so hard to acquire. David, bought my plasma TV and my leather furniture. His living room now looks like a real living room rather than a bachelor pad. I sold all my Magic cards down in Roanoke, VA. My Magic collection was pretty hard to part with. Ken and I spent years buying boxes of cards and we played quite a bit until he got tired of losing. If you ever go to Star City Games, be sure to tell them 'hi' for me. They are good people.

So I lost my job and after taking a quick look to see what was out there where I could make the same kind of loot I was before, reality set in. I need to sell my house. THAT pissed me off because that was something else I had knocked myself out to get and keep. (Another blog story) But what can ya do. The salesman who sold me my motorhome told me about a guy he knew and that's who I went with to put my house on the market. Ken and I had gone camping in our 5th-wheel many times and I loved it so I decided to just get rid of everything and go full-timing. All I have to do is make enough to pay for my truck and motorhome and if a person with a degree can't do that, then I got serious issues.

So many people have told me, "I wish I could do that." It's easy. Just lose your job and the decision is made for you!

Well, I have other stuff that I need to get done so I'll continue the saga later.